Hello again, faux fur!

Just a quick update to say that, after a 3-week hiatus from my jewellery making classes (2 of those weeks all schools were shut for mid-term and last week when I was on my trip to London, MAN was I glad to be back at class. I’m glad to say that the tutor was quite good at recapping what was done in the class I missed. In addition to learning a little about etching (ever wondered how jewellery designers get raised images or patterns on a smooth metal surface? It’s not done in the same was as carving or sculpting, that’s for sure!), we also had time to practice our soldering techniques and learning how to make jump rings (basically small circular rings you’ll find connecting the clasp to your piece of jewellery, or what chain maille is made of). Having been unsuccessful at soldering my ring, I was pleased to note that from soldering 5 jump rings last night, I managed to successfully solder 3 of them the first time and the other 2 on my second attempt. YES!

With the changing weather and drop in temperature especially in the evenings when I arrive and leave my class at one of the local high schools, you can see everyone (including me) is adding jackets, coats and warmer layers to their standard half-sleeves or T-shirts (really, it’s Scotland – it’s not unusual to see girls walking in short strapless dresses in sky high heels in the middle of the winter in the UK in general, but in Scotland even when it’s snowing, you’ll sometimes see men – and women – wearing just a T-shirt when it’s below 0 and snowing heavily).

As I’m not truly Scottish, despite marking my 5th year of being in the country at the beginning of September this year, I prefer to keep warm and pile in the layers when it gets cold. Although I do still have the prerequisite T-shirt on, it’s waaaay under all the woolen and fleece layers as well as my trusty faux fur snoods that keep my neck warm. I made my first ones earlier in the year and quite a few friends, family and colleagues have really liked the ones I made them. Now that I’ve got more fabric from my recent trips to the fabric shops, I was so excited with the different ranges of faux fur available that I couldn’t help getting 4 different cuts in the last couple of weeks.

My new range of faux fur for making my snoods

A quick search on Google will show you where you can find tutorials for making them. I’m pretty sure for the short ones I consulted and had to adapt the instructions from Adventures in Dressmaking to suit my personal preference when it comes to how it hangs, but I also referred to another site (which I can’t find now) for making the longer ones.

I haven’t yet made a start on the snoods, but I intend to do it soon. I promised my OH that I’ll get his second pair of PJ trousers so he would have a spare, but because that won’t take too long and neither would the snoods, I’ll be sure to ppost a tutorial up of how I personally make my own snoods and what kind of bother I’ve come across when making them. It’s not scary, don’t worry – I feel that some points I want to add to my tutorial may help those of you who are doing it for the first time that not many seem to explain in their own tutorials and I want to enhance that and also show you how it can be styled, whether you’re making the long (double-loop) version – which I will be doing with the 2 leopard print faux fur pieces as well as the sectioned-pile grey faux fur – or the shorter one which I will do with the silver-grey faux fur.

What do you think about snoods? Do you support the faux fur trade as opposed to genuine animal fur, or are you against both?